Let’s just say: It was a very long one. Even though we broke the 1000+ km trip up into several parts, we spent a lot of hours in the car. And I spent a lot of hours on the back seat, exploring my entire repertoire of songs and entertaining the little one while outside the…

We crossed the Southern Alps and stopped in Arthur’s Pass, where we hiked through a beautiful forest and to a huge waterfall. It was impressive to drive through the mountains and see the towering, snow-capped peaks, but the village was the strangest place I’ve been to in NZ… The way down towards Christchurch was a…

After our stop-over in Singapore, we arrived in Auckland and were greeted by Frodo and his companions. We explored Auckland downtown and enjoyed the views from Mount Eden. Then we went on to Pahia, where we spent Christmas on the beach and went for a sailing trip in the Bay of Islands. After a long…

And here are some (iphone) pictures taken during the trip through Liberia. 1) ferry across Cavally River 2) exit from the guesthouse in Fishtown 3) bushmeat for sale on the roadside 4) through the jungle 5) I made some little friends 6) further through the rainforest 7) beautiful rainbow over the jungle 8) laundry day…

These are some more pictures from the trip through Côte d’Ivoire, all taken with the iphone and from a (moving) car. 1) & 2) street market in Abidjan 3) sunset over major road in Abidjan 4) skyline of Abidjan 5) view from our hotel in Soubré 6) roadside scene in one of the villages along…

For a potential project, I travelled to Abidjan and embarked on a journey through the last remaining part of the Upper Guinean Forest in Côte d’Ivoire and neighbouring Liberia. It was quite an adventure and we spent endless days on bumpy roads while exploring the Tai–Grebo–Sapo region. The sheer size of the trees and plants…

We just got back from Mozambique, where we spent some relaxed days at the beach. On the drive between Maputo and Inhambane, we saw countless cashew trees, many mango trees covered over and over in little fruits, and about a million coconut palms. Of course, we also bought some cashews from one of the many…

The next day, we decided to try and get a view from the top. Mont-Aux-Sources is one of the highest peaks in the Drakensberg and is a daunting rock tower with steep walls raising to over 3.200m. We got close enough to get an idea of the steep climb leading all the way up to…

When I came back from Jordan, I went directly from the airport into the car and on to the beautiful Drakensberg region in South Africa. It took us a couple of hours to get there and I was completely exhausted after the long journey, but there were some really amazing moments on the way. Like…

This is more or less the GPS directions for the 700km long trip from Gaborone to Gweta. You drive for a very long time and then you end up in a little town with palm trees and huts that sits on the edge of some really large salt pans. We went up there over the…

For the last part of our trip we went to visit my cousin and aunt near Washington, D.C. and got a glorious day to explore a bit of the city. Of course, we had to see the White House and Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden, and then walked all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. We…

The western part of New York State is very rural with lots of small farms and villages, and it also known for the Amish people that live here. This time of the year is particularly quiet and a lot of places are closed for the season. We discovered a lovely little lake and walked around…

After visiting Niagara Falls, we rented a car and drove to Buffalo for a quick walk around the city centre. We admired some of the art-deco buildings, the massive city hall and drove along the water front. From there, we went on to Mayville and Lake Chautauqua where we spent the night at a lovely…

Last weekend, I went for a trip to Mabuasehube, a national park in the wild west of Botswana. From the tarred road, it takes more than 100km on a sand piste to the entrance gate and from there, another 25km to the campsite at Mabuasehube pan, so it’s really in the middle of nowhere. We…

A few impressions from our trip to Italy. We did quite a bit of driving, to Florence, then on to the Maremma and back to Lucca. The weather was beautiful for most of the time, and the landscape in Tuscany is pretty, as are all the old little towns.